The politics of fashion and beauty in Africa

Contributors 21 | 105
Yewande Omotoso is a Nigerian-Barbadian author and architect who lives
in South Africa. Her debut novel, Bom Boy, was published in 2011. It won
the 2012 South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author, was
shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Fiction Prize in South Africa as well as
the M-Net Literary Awards 2012, and was the runner-up for the 2013 Etisalat
Prize for Literature. Her second book, The Woman Next Door, was published
this year.
Sa’diyya Shaikh is associate professor and head of the department of
religious studies at the University of Cape Town. Working at the intersection
of Islamic studies and gender studies, she has a special interest in Sufism
and its implications for Islamic feminism and feminist theory. Her areas of
research include gender-sensitive readings of hadith and Quran; theoretical
debates on Islam and feminism; religion and gender-based violence; and an
empirical project entitled “South African Muslim Women, Marriage, Gender
and Sexuality.” Her published books include Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn
Arabi, Gender and Sexuality (UNC Press 2012 and UCT Press 2013); and
Violence Against Women in Contemporary World Religion (co-edited with
Dan Maguire, Pilgrim Press 2007).
Sylvia Tamale is a leading African feminist who teaches law at Makerere
University in Uganda, where she was the first female dean in the School
of Law. Her research interests include women in politics, gender, law and
sexuality, and feminist jurisprudence. She has published extensively in these
and other areas, and has served as visiting professor in several academic
institutions globally and on several international human rights boards. She
holds a bachelor of laws from Makerere University, a master’s in law from
Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in sociology and feminist studies from the
University of Minnesota.
Sehin Teferra is the co-founder of Setaweet, a feminist collective engaged in
research and activism in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She recently obtained a PhD
in gender studies from SOAS, University of London. Her thesis consisted of a
feminist analysis of violence against sex workers in Addis Ababa.